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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27003736">Park Time</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/random0factor/pseuds/random0factor'>random0factor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Vinaigrettes [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>HLVRAI - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Food mentions, Gordon Freeman needs anxiety meds moments, M/M, Mortality is always a fun thing to contemplate, Pre-Relationship, Spider mention, Tommy is a good friend, building relationships, monkey mention</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:01:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,399</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27003736</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/random0factor/pseuds/random0factor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Benrey doesn't have answers - any answers, actually. He just knows Gordon needs to lighten up and stop clinging to his kid like uh... a octopus.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Benrey/Gordon Freeman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Vinaigrettes [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970863</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>152</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Park Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Joshie was cool. What <em> wasn’t </em> cool was how Gordon was octopussing him.</p><p>“Okay, you’re gonna have to explain exactly what you mean by that.” Tommy groaned into the phone. “Octopussing isn’t - it isn’t a word, Benrey.”</p><p>“Man, fuckin, you know. He’s all ‘my kid and I are best friends’ and they’re hangin’ out all the time but they don’t like… mn. You know. Separate.”</p><p>“You mean Gordon’s just spending a lot of time with Joshua?”</p><p>“Yeah, like. You know. An octopus. Or one of those other fish that sticks to glass.”</p><p>“You’ve been watching Animal Planet!”</p><p>“YoU’Ve BeEN waTcHinG AnImaL PlaNEt!” Benrey mocked. “No, man. I have not.”</p><p>“You have too.”</p><p>“Have not.”</p><p>“If you want to, you can - you can always come over here!” Tommy’s phone rustled. “I’m off tomorrow, we can play some games and - and hang out!”</p><p>“Yeah, but that doesn’t solve my problem.”</p><p>“Benrey, I think - I think you’re just being a little jealous.” Tommy said. He wasn’t even <em> quiet </em> about that shit. Accusing him of having feelings and shit.</p><p>“Tommy I think you’re just, uh, wrong.”</p><p>“See what I mean, Sunkist? Benrey doesn’t want to talk about his feelings.” Tommy said in the background, probably pulling the phone away in a fake attempt to keep Benrey from hearing what he was saying. It was fake because he <em> wanted </em> Benrey to hear it. The faker.</p><p>“I don’t! Man feelings are so dumb.”</p><p>“Hey Benrey?” Gordon knocked on the door. “You up?”</p><p>“Yo Freeman, what’s up?” Benrey stretched and opened the door from his bed, and if Tommy noticed a change in his voice, he <em> didn’t fucking say anything </em> like a good friend. Gordon poked his head in, twisting to find Benrey laying on his bed, on top of the pile of clothes. He wasn’t even curled up on top like a cat. He was the opposite of jackknifed on the pile, like a tortilla that landed on a lump of taco meat and not the other way around.</p><p>“Nothing much. Joshua and I were gonna head to the park. Did you want to come?” Gordon glanced around the room. Just like earlier in the day, almost everything Benrey owned was piled on the bed, except for a few shirts. He was lounging around shirtless right now. Jeans. Socks. Gordon raised a judgey eyebrow but didn’t say anything. </p><p>“Ah! Mr. Freeman, Sunkist heard you! Now I have to go to the park, too!” Tommy wasn’t even on speakerphone, he was just that loud sometimes. Gordon chuckled, Tommy laughed, and something clumped in the hallway. It sounded distinctly like a nine-year-old looking through the shoe pile. </p><p>“Which one do you normally go to?” Gordon asked. Tommy was quiet on the other end of the line.</p><p>“Yo, Tommy, Freeman asked what you - where you uh, go.”</p><p>“There’s a park on 17th and Harrison that Sunkist really likes! It’s a bit of a drive for you guys, but it has a really nice jungle gym and-” something muffled. “No, Sunkist, don’t!”</p><p>The phone hung up.</p><p>“Well, I guess we’re driving across town.” Gordon shook his head. “You wanna come with?”</p><p>“I uh, guess, since you ruined my conversation.” Benrey rolled off the bed, landing on his face. “Lemme find a good shirt.”</p><p>“Nothing crude.” Gordon sighed as he stepped into the hallway. Benrey rolled his eyes. He knew better than to wear the crude stuff around Joshie. That was for Gordon’s eyes only. </p><p>“Benrey!” Joshua jumped up, latching onto Benrey’s arm like a spider. A monkey. A spider monkey.</p><p>Whoa, wait. The idea of an actual spider-like monkey made Benrey stop for a second. How would it work? It would be so fuckin’ good at climbing. Like, the best. Cause spiders and monkeys were both good at climbing. Plus, monkey webs. Monkey nets made out of monkey webs to catch prey. Did monkeys eat meat?</p><p>Monkey mandibles.</p><p>“Benrey?” Gordon put his hand on Benrey’s shoulder, snapping him out of it. “You good, man?”</p><p>“Huh?” Benrey looked up. The mental image was fading, but still slightly superimposed on Gordon’s face like a really bad photoshop job. “Yeah, man, I’m good.”</p><p>“Cool. Let’s head out.” Gordon pulled Joshua off Benrey and took them downstairs, to the car. Benrey got into the back seat again. He’d reset to his default height. It was easier this way. Plus, it kept Gordon off his back. <em> Don’t tell my kid you’re not human</em>, he’d said. <em> Don’t make yourself super tall for no reason</em>, <em> Don’t make your skin glow in the dark just because you don’t want to turn on the light. </em> </p><p><em> Don’t be too weird. </em> At least he’d said “too weird” and not just “weird”. He was pretty sure he’d go catatonic if he couldn’t be him-fucking-self.</p><p>“Have we ever gone to the park on 17th and Harrison? I can’t remember.” Gordon muttered as they pulled out into traffic. They were heading to a different part of town than the one Benrey was normally confined to. He’d been out this way a few times, but they took a different turn almost immediately, ruining his sense of direction.</p><p>He had the same limitations on his range that Joshua did, but for different reasons. Gordon was worried about Joshua being taken away by kidnappers. (He didn’t realize that if anybody <em> did </em> mess with Joshua, the kidnappers would be dealt with swiftly. Between Benrey and the Science Team, any hypothetical kidnapper wouldn’t stand a chance.) Gordon was worried about Benrey hurting anybody else. Which made sense. He didn’t quite trust Benrey yet. But he would.</p><p>“I haven’t.” Benrey said.</p><p>“Well, no dip, dude.” Gordon laughed. Joshua laughed too. It was a nice laugh.</p><p>Kid was obviously Gordon’s. Same laugh, same smile. He’d probably have the same crinkle by his eyes when he got older. Probably wouldn’t need glasses, though. Hopefully. He had Gordon’s eyes.</p><p>“I’m glad it’s not too hot today.” Gordon sighed, rolling his window down. Benrey was hit in the face with slightly-less-than-oppressive desert air. “I’ve got some sunscreen in the back. Will you hand it to Josh, Benrey?”</p><p>“I don’t wanna be called Josh. There’s another Josh in my class and he’s mean. I wanna be Joshua. Forever.”</p><p>“Okay, Joshua.” Gordon said. “Is Joshie okay?”</p><p>“Mmmmmm…” Joshua twisted in his seat, fiddling with something Benrey couldn’t see while he looked for the sunscreen. “I guess. But only you, Freeze.”</p><p>“Thank you, Joshie.” Gordon ruffled his son’s hair and smiled. Benrey got distracted by that smile.</p><p>“Sunscreen?” Gordon asked a few moments later.</p><p>“Huh?” Oh. The sunscreen. The sunscreen for Gordon. Gordon’s sunscreen. “This it?”</p><p>“No, that’s water!” Joshua laughed. </p><p>“Uh. This it?” Benrey held out a weird bottle. It was opaque white plastic.</p><p>“That’s shampoo. Wait, that’s what happened to that. I thought I was going crazy.” Gordon shook his head. “It’s an orange bottle. Bumps on the side. Look in the back of Joshua’s seat.”</p><p>“Sure.” Benrey dug around. Hair brush. Comb. Weird net-thing. Weird plastic thing. Blue bottle. Orange bottle. “This it?”</p><p>“Yes! Thank you, Benrey.” Gordon grabbed it and passed it to Joshua, who squirted some of the orange-bottled stuff into his hand and started rubbing it on his exposed skin. Benrey watched as the white cream turned invisible.</p><p>“Whassat for?”</p><p>“It keeps the sun from hurting our skin.” Gordon explained. “You need any?”</p><p>“Uh. Probably not.” Benrey looked at the bottle. “Never used it before.”</p><p>“Okay. Let me know if your skin starts to hurt.”</p><p>“From the sun?”</p><p>“Yeah, man. The sun beats down on us with massive amounts of radiation. Humans are pretty susceptible to radiation. It causes sunburn, cancer, all sorts of not fun stuff.”</p><p>“Humans! You’re funny.” Joshua laughed.</p><p>“Did you get your face?” Gordon asked. They turned down another side road. More trees. That was good.</p><p>“Yeah, Freeze.”</p><p>“Good. We’re almost there.”</p><p>“Can we get Taco Bell on the way home?”</p><p>“If you’re good.” Gordon said. </p><p>Gordon had Benrey get out of the car and stand behind it so he could parallel park in a spot that was a smidge too small for his car, but it worked out okay. Benrey only had to no-clip a little bit so his legs wouldn’t get banged up. Gordon tapped the car behind him, but he thought it was Benrey and kept apologizing on their short walk over to the park. Benrey didn’t tell him the truth. After two days of no attention from Gordon, he was loving it.</p><p>“Freeze hit Benrey with a car!” Joshua said as soon as they saw Tommy. He latched onto Tommy the same way he latched onto Benrey. Just spider-monkey’d onto his arm and refused to let go. Dangling all… Monkey-ish. Monkey-like. Monkey-lite.</p><p>“That’s not good!” Tommy acted all worried, like he’d forgotten all the shit Benrey could take.</p><p>“It was an accident!” Gordon wailed. “I’ve said I’m sorry like, ten times.”</p><p>“How did it happen if it was an accident? People don’t just - stand in the road.”</p><p>“Parallel parking is the bane of my existence.” Aw, that was touching. A few months ago Gordon would have said Benrey was the bane of his existence.</p><p>“I was his spotter.” Benrey said apathetically. “He went too far back and uh, banged me.”</p><p>“I did not - I’m.” Gordon paused. He looked at Joshua, who was very enthusiastic about Sunkist. He wasn’t listening? Okay, good. “I’m sorry, Benrey. I didn’t mean to hit you with the car.”</p><p>“I’m fine, bro. No biggie.”</p><p>“If you’re sure.” Tommy said. His glittering eyes glanced at Benrey. Oh no. No, no no.</p><p>“ANYWAY.” Benrey said, loudly. It wasn’t like, shouting. Shouting was always emotional. Like ‘No, stop that!’ had emotion in it. Just saying a word really loudly wasn’t shouting. This is a hill he will die on, Feetman.</p><p>“Anyway.” Tommy grinned, then turned to Sunkist and Joshua. They listened to Tommy pretty good for a kid and a very intelligent dog.</p><p>“Anyway.” Gordon finished, sighing for some reason.</p><p>Gordon watched Tommy and Sunkist and Joshua run off, making the most of the park. There weren’t any other people around - it was the middle of the day and Joshua’s school had a different school schedule than this town, so there weren’t a lot of families. Just three grown men, a kid, and a dog. Gordon watched Joshua from afar and Benrey stood next to him.</p><p>“You, uh, doing okay, man?” Gordon jumped when Benrey spoke.</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“That’s my line, Feetman.” Benrey smiled, kinda. Joshua was far enough away that he was safe. Gordon huffed, didn’t say anything. Gonna have to be pushy. Good thing that was Benrey’s default setting. “You okay?”</p><p>“I’m fine. Don’t like being called ‘Feetman’, but I’m fine.”</p><p>“Nah, you’re not, man. You’re like tense and stuff.” </p><p>“How would you know what tense feels like?”</p><p>“Bro.” Benrey turned and looked at him. His face was blank. He scanned up and down Gordon’s body like a hawk, and honestly? Gordon looked tenser than a bag full of field mice at a Hawk and Cobra reunion buffet. “You’re about half as tense as Black Mesa, so that’s good, but you’re still so tense it’s, uhhhhh - not good.” </p><p>“I’m just. I don’t want to waste any time with Joshua.” Gordon sighed. “I’ve said it before. He’s like, my -”</p><p>“Your favorite person, you love him so much, you don’t like living so far away, we get it, we know.” Benrey would have sighed, but that was too human a thing to do. He settled for crossing his arms.</p><p>He was <em> not </em> jealous.</p><p>“It’s just, I feel like I need to make up for all the time I missed.” Benrey smacked his lips.</p><p>Time was weird. It was all Gordon could think about sometimes. Plans to make with the rest of the Science Team. Plans to catch up with the rest of his friends from outside Black Mesa - Benrey was sure there were only one or two, no matter how Gordon tried to spin it. Time spent at therapy, time spent at the store, time spent wasting time.</p><p>“Bro, like, all we got is this moment. Enjoy it.”</p><p>“What?” Gordon laughed. He was honestly laughing. “That is the most zen-hippy bullshit I’ve ever heard you say! Normally you’re like, bluh bluh, screw everybody and everything, but you’re all kumbaya about time?”</p><p>“What?” Benrey shook his head. There were a lot of words there he didn’t want to get into. “No, man. Just. Like, listen. Unless you’re like Tommy or his dad, you’re not gonna be able to experience anything but right now. It exists. It was there. It will be here. But we - uh - we don’t do time the same way they do. We can only see this moment. It’s all we got. We just gotta enjoy it.”</p><p>“... Are you seriously talking about fourth-dimensional properties?” Gordon looked excited and happy. Holy shit. Nerd alert.</p><p>“Man, I dunno. I don’t understand that shit - I’m not a nerd like you, but like.” Benrey gestured at the playground. “You’re stressing about something that nobody else here is worried about. We’re just enjoying it, man. And if you want to get the most like, fun or whatever, you should do it too. Just enjoy it. Chill out.”</p><p>Gordon paused. He looked around him, probably noticing how nice the park was for the first time. And it was nice. Probably funded by Black Mesa blood money. Benrey watched him breathe, trying to focus on anything besides the crushing weight of time rolling by. </p><p>“So…” Benrey started. “What’s a Taco Bell?”</p><p>Gordon laughed. He laughed and he walked away. </p><p>“Bro. Bruh.” Benrey walked after him. “Bro that doesn’t answer my question.”</p><p>They ended up going to Tommy’s for dinner after the park, when Sunkist and Joshua were both finally ready to leave. Gordon didn’t tell Joshua no enough, in Benrey’s opinion. But he seemed calmer now, so that was good. And he let up a little bit. Even let Benrey and Joshua walk down to the 7-11 by themselves without Gordon there. </p><p>And Joshua was a pretty cool kid. They bought a bunch of 25-cent bouncy balls and dropped them down the staircase outside the apartment, one by one, then picked them up and did it again. It was a very relaxing exercise, plus - when they were done - they had a ton of balls to bounce against Feetman's bedroom door.</p><p>Benrey still didn’t know what a Taco Bell was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Titles are hard and I hate them.</p><p>I'm gonna update the other story soon, I just had... well, this popped into my head and it needed out, plus I decided to change the direction of my other fic again. Now with 100% more self indulgence! Some might call it mindless.</p><p>I think I'll continue writing little stories like this one. I've got a few in the chamber. We'll see if they get posted.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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